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Mini Update… Literally

I apologize for the delay in approving comments over the past month or so but I have a good excuse. My wife and I welcomed our first child, Madelyn Elizabeth Westlake, into the world on June 24th. She is Don’s seventh grandchild but hopefully not his last. My only sorrow is that she will never get to meet her amazing grandfather in person. The silver lining is, of course, the incredible body of work that he left behind to enrich her understanding of our crazy world. Thanks to everyone, as always, for the kind and generous comments.

I made a little progress on the continuing work of reconstructing Don’s bibliography from his chronological library and will post an update on the new additions to the website very soon. Keep an eye out for that in the coming days.

Congratulations to you & your wife on the birth of Madelyn: ‘the happiest days are when babies come’ to quote an author somewhat less prolific than your Dad. Thank you very much for keeping up the site, it’s been one of my favorites for quite awhile.

Paul, thanks for keeping this site alive. I became a huge fan after reading Help I Am Being Held Prisoner about 40 years ago, and have read pretty much everything I could find by Don since then. I have always referred to him as my favorite author of any kind and recommended his stuff to anyone that would listen. I also tried to emulate him and got into writing satire because I honestly think that the best way to convey truths is by pointing out life’s little absurdities and I learned that from Donald. Check my website for examples.

I was into fantasy and sci-fi as a kid and had to mature to fully appreciate my father’s work. You’re absolutely right about the use of satire. I’ve been sprinkling it into my own writing since I was in grade school and only later came to realize where I got it from. Of course, my version pales in comparison to the master.

I dropped by your site and read some of your stuff. Funny and poignant. Well done.

I join all the fans in wishing the best for baby Madelyn, the baby with the neatest grandfather anyone ever could have.
Maybe I’m only being lazy, but as The Biblio is in progress, would it be possible to denote all the Dortmunders? I finally managed to acquire all the Parkers — fell in love with him first, then met Dortmunder and now am in love with him too. I have some, but am not sure of all the titles. Is this info available?

I am planning on noting all the Dortmunders and Parkers (and probably a few other recurring characters) with asterisks or some such. I recently concluded that I should do the same in the bibliography currently on the site and your note inspires me to move on that more quickly. I was waiting until I had a reliable list of Dortmunder short stories, too, but there’s no harm in getting started.

Super! I recently found Thieves Dozen and guffawed all the way through it; find myself quoting lines in various situations, so short stories will need to be added. Overwhelming task! I wonder if your dad had any idea of his effect. Approaching the anniversary of losing him gives us readers pause, even though knew only his writing. Happy new year to your and yours.
Naomi